ingléspañol

Pague Biles Aquí

See? This is what I'm talkin' 'bout! I was walking through a complex full of stores and whatnot the other day and I pass this kiosk at which a person can pay various utility bills. I know this because in bright bold letters across the screen it read:

PAGUE BILES AQUÍ

Now, you might throw at me that all language is simply an attempt at communication and that if it communicated, then everything is settled and I have no right to bitch, but I can and I will.

BILES ????!!!???!!! WTF, mates??

As far as my limited Spanish allows me, that translates roughly as YOU SHOULD PAY BILE HERE

and that's even using a corruption of bilis, which is Spanish for the bile duct.

I don't know what kind of people that these companies use to make their translations, but I have to tell you I believe that they're broken down into two groups: First group: a bunch of gringos sitting around with a Spanish-English dictionary playing Hunt-n-Peck at words, and Second Group: which is a group of illiterate chicanos who speak only a corruption of Spanish because they've actually been raised either in Southern California or Southern Texas.

I think this machine was programmed by the latter. Basically, because BILES is so obviously Spanglish - a Spanish corruption of "bills" and I'm not sure but I think the "pague" itself is wrong, because it's the subjunctive tense, instead of a command, which would be "paga" - but then, like most gringos, I never got a really good comprehension of the subjunctive, so I could be completely way off base on that one.

So, with that, I'll sign off for now.

BILES . . . sheesh!!!!!!

VG

posted by Verble Gherulous @ 12:59 PM